The President of the United States, Donald Trump, during his inauguration speech in Washington D.C. on Monday, January 20, announced his intention to invoke a "foreign enemies" law from 1798, declare a national emergency at the southern border of the United States, and designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
In his address, Trump emphasized fulfilling his electoral promises related to an aggressive immigration policy, which includes carrying out the largest deportation campaign of migrants in history and halting the passage of migrants and asylum seekers at the border with Mexico.
"We will begin the process of returning millions of criminal foreigners back to where they came from," Trump stated before lawmakers, politicians, and businesspeople present at the Capitol. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump has stigmatized migrants, even labeling them criminals.
The foreign enemies law allows the government to expel foreigners without due legal process. In his speech, Trump indicated that his administration would use all federal and state forces to eliminate the presence of foreign gangs and criminal networks in the country.
Regarding the border, Trump announced plans to declare a national emergency at the southern border to control the irregular entry of migrants and restore the "Remain in Mexico" policy, which forced asylum seekers to wait in the neighboring country while their cases were processed. He also plans to send troops to the southern border and declare Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
Trump is expected to sign nearly a hundred executive orders, many of them focused on immigration management, that same afternoon.
